Each year, cities across the globe gear up for the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge – a thrilling four-day race to document the most wildlife observations, uncover the widest array of species, and rally the highest number of participants. It’s a celebration of biodiversity, citizen science, and the unexpected wonders hidingRead more
Collections Online hosts over a million items from Te Papa’s collection, each with its own unique story. As part of an internship exploring how blackfoot pāua are represented in Te Papa, Sara Joyce Macdonald highlights a few collection items showing the varied uses of pāua and the importance of that unique taonga to Aotearoa New Zealand.Read more
Wellington is known for being a biodiversity-rich city with many of its surrounding hills protected in reserves and birdlife booming from active predator control. But Wellington is also a harbour city with spectacular wildlife concealed beneath its waves. Luckily, Wellington is also home to numerous talented underwater photographers, providing glimpses of these otherwise hidden treasures. Te Papa researcher Lara Shepherd shares her favourite photos of Wellington’s amazing underwater life and, just in time for the upcoming iNaturalist 2024 City Nature Challenge (April 26–April 29), provides suggestions for how to learn more about the oft-overlooked critters in our marine ‘backyard’.Read more
As part of the Sāmoan Multiplicities research project, Research Assistant Annika Sung curated an exhibition at The New Zealand Portrait Gallery using Te Papa’s historical photography collection and the works of contemporary artists. Here, Annika takes us through the work involved in the exhibition and the results. This post was first published on IndeGen, 2 April, 2024. Read more
A definitive new reference for New Zealand hebes and speedwells has been published in the Flora of New Zealand Online. This is the first complete account of this group of related species since 1925. Botany Curator Heidi Meudt talks about the achievement here. Read more
Did you know that there were a lot of women photographers in Aotearoa New Zealand before 1960? To mark this year’s International Women’s Day tomorrow, and its theme ‘inspire inclusion’, Photography Curator Lissa Mitchell introduces some of them and their stories. So what kind of photography did women make? ForRead more
Leslie Adkin (1888–1964) was a farmer by profession, based in Levin. He pursued geology and archaeology, enjoyed exploring and tramping, while photographing and diarising these adventures meticulously. A more detailed biography of Adkin can be found on Te Ara. Art intern Annie Barnard is an Art History student at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Her internship was completed as part of her Honours year. Here she talks about her mahi working with some of his albums and diaries.Read more
For almost two years, Te Papa has been digitising the Spencer Digby / Ronald D Woolf collection of photographic negatives. Now the project has reached the end of its funding, here’s some highlights from the current team members. Read more
Recent developments in photographic equipment and software has contributed to a proliferation of stunning wildlife images. Natural History curator Colin Miskelly describes how high-quality digital images have revealed previously overlooked or unrecognised ecological interactions between two ancient species that have been in Aotearoa for tens of millions of years. OurRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this eleventh blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Photography curator Athol McCredie reflects on a famous photograph discovered in 2020 amongst our huge Spencer Digby / Ronald D. Woolf portrait collection of negatives.Read more
Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this tenth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this ninth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this eighth blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
Aotearoa New Zealand has eleven official Great Walks. Te Papa natural history curator Dr Colin Miskelly has walked (or paddled) them all, and kept records of the birds that he encountered along the way. In this seventh blog in the series, he reports on the birds encountered while walking theRead more
